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Grifter's Game
When seasoned con man Joe Marlin accidentally steals a suitcase full of heroin, he contemplates murdering the man he stole it from, with the help of the man's wife who desperately wants to see her husband dead.Originally published as Mona. Reprint.
205 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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2583 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
768 books2,989 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 312 reviews
June 29, 2011
ALERT: HARD CASE CRIME MAY CAUSE INTENSE, MULTIPLE BOOKGASMS!!
HCC, you saucy, filthy, gorgeous little minx. I’m so glad I found you. After gobbling up book #1, I learned there are...steady...steady...65 MORE OF THESE...which made me...well...
NOIRites, I gotta tell you, I fell hard, fast and "damn the consequences" for this sinister steaminess. And to then find out that there are 60+ more of these seedy, unwholesome, dangerously bits of noirish nastiness, caused such a stoking of my literary libido that I...I...oh no...
Yep...it’s a multiple!!! I'm gonna have to finish this up quickly.
So what’s the dealio with this book? First, if you haven’t yet, DON'T read the product description from Amazon because it gives away the first plot “twist” and I think you’ll have more funsies if you don’t know. Of course, if you already peeked, no biggie...but shame on you.
Anyway, Joe Martin is a smart, savvy con man who makes his living scamming rich women out of their cash, their jewelry and their dignity. He is a Naughty by Nature boy and bizness is gumdrop good. That is, until the Day-o he meets Mona…rich, beautifully bountiful and sexiluscious Mona...and quickly finds himself naughty bit deep in the most difficult and potentially life-shortening con of his career.
That is all I want to tell you specifically about the plot, except that it is pulse-poundingly fast and tight as a drum. I do want to call out 4 aspects of the novel that were highlights for me:
1. Plot and Pacing: Lawrence Block can spread story with the best of them and he had me fully invested from the first paragraph. His writing is crisp and his breezy balance between detail and pace is scrumdiddlyumptious.
2. Characters: Joe and Mona pack some serious sizzle, for shizzle, and completely suck up your attention with whatever they are doing on the page. Their back and forth, round and round and in and out made me positively giddy.
3. Prose/Dialogue: In a word…Perfection!! Witness the following:
4. THE ENDING: Oh sweet shockers…the ending. Your reviewer was embarrassingly unprepared for it. I know this is noir and is, by definition, dark and gritty, but I was still caught off tackle by the final resolution of the story. This one is going to stick on my brain carpet like syrup and turned this from a great 4 star read to an “O Face” inducing 5 star extravaganza.
And that about does it. Bottom-line, I loved this in a “can’t get enough of you baby” sorta way and have bought the next 10 or so of the HCC catalog hoping for more "sweet" tarts and "sour" whisky from the sinful heaven that is Hard Case Crime. 5.0 STARS.
HCC, you saucy, filthy, gorgeous little minx. I’m so glad I found you. After gobbling up book #1, I learned there are...steady...steady...65 MORE OF THESE...which made me...well...
NOIRites, I gotta tell you, I fell hard, fast and "damn the consequences" for this sinister steaminess. And to then find out that there are 60+ more of these seedy, unwholesome, dangerously bits of noirish nastiness, caused such a stoking of my literary libido that I...I...oh no...
Yep...it’s a multiple!!! I'm gonna have to finish this up quickly.
So what’s the dealio with this book? First, if you haven’t yet, DON'T read the product description from Amazon because it gives away the first plot “twist” and I think you’ll have more funsies if you don’t know. Of course, if you already peeked, no biggie...but shame on you.
Anyway, Joe Martin is a smart, savvy con man who makes his living scamming rich women out of their cash, their jewelry and their dignity. He is a Naughty by Nature boy and bizness is gumdrop good. That is, until the Day-o he meets Mona…rich, beautifully bountiful and sexiluscious Mona...and quickly finds himself naughty bit deep in the most difficult and potentially life-shortening con of his career.
That is all I want to tell you specifically about the plot, except that it is pulse-poundingly fast and tight as a drum. I do want to call out 4 aspects of the novel that were highlights for me:
1. Plot and Pacing: Lawrence Block can spread story with the best of them and he had me fully invested from the first paragraph. His writing is crisp and his breezy balance between detail and pace is scrumdiddlyumptious.
2. Characters: Joe and Mona pack some serious sizzle, for shizzle, and completely suck up your attention with whatever they are doing on the page. Their back and forth, round and round and in and out made me positively giddy.
3. Prose/Dialogue: In a word…Perfection!! Witness the following:
“She made love with the freshness of an impatient virgin and the ingenuity of a sex-scarred whore.”
“She was hot as a sunburn.”
“No more fooling around. No more winning the battles and losing the war. No more games with chesty chickens like Linda Jamison.”
“She smelled like money. I like money; you can buy nice things with it.”
“She leaned forward to take the light and to give me a look at large breasts harnessed by a lacy black bra. Eve learned that one the day they got dressed and moved out of Eden. It has been just as effective ever since.”
4. THE ENDING: Oh sweet shockers…the ending. Your reviewer was embarrassingly unprepared for it. I know this is noir and is, by definition, dark and gritty, but I was still caught off tackle by the final resolution of the story. This one is going to stick on my brain carpet like syrup and turned this from a great 4 star read to an “O Face” inducing 5 star extravaganza.
And that about does it. Bottom-line, I loved this in a “can’t get enough of you baby” sorta way and have bought the next 10 or so of the HCC catalog hoping for more "sweet" tarts and "sour" whisky from the sinful heaven that is Hard Case Crime. 5.0 STARS.
May 9, 2023
REASSESSMENT MAY 2023:
boy, was i wrong. on first read i came in with my own silly expectations and ruined the book for myself. i kept comparing it to another similar novel, and that was reactionary of me instead of meeting the story on its own merits.
expectations always ruin things, don’t they?
now having read much more lawrence block, i was very open to an experience the second time around with “grifters game” and i realized while reading it that i was actually dealing with a minor classic. minor classics are often defined by their flawed yet brilliant results. this is one of those flawed but brilliant books.
rereading it i felt the writing hypnotic and the characters insights hella entertaining. i clicked into the voice right away in a way i hadn’t the first time. which really makes me wonder about book reviews. it’s all about timing isn’t it? when and where in your life that you read a particular book. when it finds you. moods change like seasons, and a book you dismissed revisits you at another time — and this time you become instant friends. it’s bizarre really. how little we know ourselves.
back to the book, i love what editor charles ardai is doing with ‘hard case crime’ and excavating these forgotten hard boiled page turners and rereleasing them with those gorgeous pulpy covers. i never would’ve come across this book if HCC didn’t exist.
be warned: the ending of “grifters game” is inevitably dark and yet so deliciously ironic in that you can’t believe what you’re reading and just begin to laugh.
because you know what block is doing to you. it’s quite clever and mischievous.
this has recently become one of my favorites books by lawrence block, right up there next to the first few scudder novels.
so, yeah, just go ahead and totally ignore my previous review.
for preservation tho:
_______
FIRST REACTION - MONTHS EARLIER:
alright so i couldn’t get ‘the postman always rings twice’ out of my head the entire time reading this. it seemed clear to me that this early pulp novel was lawrence block’s take on james cain’s classic terse noir about an immoral scheming couple, but to me this one felt a bit goofy in comparison. i shouldn’t be comparing like that, so that’s partly my fault, but sheesh — it’s the exact same set up!
i’m a big fan of block’s writing in general, so maybe on reread i’ll change my mind some day. for now i was somewhat bored by the big chunks of time between actual things happening, and the endless pages of the characters inner thoughts, which were often sardonic and funny, but got hella repetitive. i couldn’t help but appreciate james cain’s tight prose in ‘the postman always rings twice’ while reading blocks story. it stood in stark contrast for me.
this novel is nowhere near awful or bad, as it has a lot of great bits and pieces — and the ending is quite memorable and quite bonkers, though it may land a bit too much on the bonkers side for me.
often books like this grow on you in hindsight or on second read through years later, and i wouldn’t be surprised if this does as well. block does a have a almost nihilistic sense of humor in this book that makes for some vicarious fun, so who knows.
another hard case crime re-release btw. with those gorgeous retro pulp covers.
this one’s no exception.
boy, was i wrong. on first read i came in with my own silly expectations and ruined the book for myself. i kept comparing it to another similar novel, and that was reactionary of me instead of meeting the story on its own merits.
expectations always ruin things, don’t they?
now having read much more lawrence block, i was very open to an experience the second time around with “grifters game” and i realized while reading it that i was actually dealing with a minor classic. minor classics are often defined by their flawed yet brilliant results. this is one of those flawed but brilliant books.
rereading it i felt the writing hypnotic and the characters insights hella entertaining. i clicked into the voice right away in a way i hadn’t the first time. which really makes me wonder about book reviews. it’s all about timing isn’t it? when and where in your life that you read a particular book. when it finds you. moods change like seasons, and a book you dismissed revisits you at another time — and this time you become instant friends. it’s bizarre really. how little we know ourselves.
back to the book, i love what editor charles ardai is doing with ‘hard case crime’ and excavating these forgotten hard boiled page turners and rereleasing them with those gorgeous pulpy covers. i never would’ve come across this book if HCC didn’t exist.
be warned: the ending of “grifters game” is inevitably dark and yet so deliciously ironic in that you can’t believe what you’re reading and just begin to laugh.
because you know what block is doing to you. it’s quite clever and mischievous.
this has recently become one of my favorites books by lawrence block, right up there next to the first few scudder novels.
so, yeah, just go ahead and totally ignore my previous review.
for preservation tho:
_______
FIRST REACTION - MONTHS EARLIER:
alright so i couldn’t get ‘the postman always rings twice’ out of my head the entire time reading this. it seemed clear to me that this early pulp novel was lawrence block’s take on james cain’s classic terse noir about an immoral scheming couple, but to me this one felt a bit goofy in comparison. i shouldn’t be comparing like that, so that’s partly my fault, but sheesh — it’s the exact same set up!
i’m a big fan of block’s writing in general, so maybe on reread i’ll change my mind some day. for now i was somewhat bored by the big chunks of time between actual things happening, and the endless pages of the characters inner thoughts, which were often sardonic and funny, but got hella repetitive. i couldn’t help but appreciate james cain’s tight prose in ‘the postman always rings twice’ while reading blocks story. it stood in stark contrast for me.
this novel is nowhere near awful or bad, as it has a lot of great bits and pieces — and the ending is quite memorable and quite bonkers, though it may land a bit too much on the bonkers side for me.
often books like this grow on you in hindsight or on second read through years later, and i wouldn’t be surprised if this does as well. block does a have a almost nihilistic sense of humor in this book that makes for some vicarious fun, so who knows.
another hard case crime re-release btw. with those gorgeous retro pulp covers.
this one’s no exception.
August 6, 2016
More than just good salacious fun! Grifter's Game, even 50 years after its original publication, still manages to surprise and morally offend...and I loved it!
Block has you helplessly rooting for scumbag Joe Marlin, as he cons his way into money and into bed. Apparently Block started this book with the intention of turning it into another of the soft porn novels he was making a paycheck on at the time. However, at some point he felt the material had achieved something slightly more literary than that, so he went with the crime genre.
I'd agree, Grifter's Game is more than a "toss off" fluff piece. The characters are gritty and mostly unlikable, but real. Couple more solid characters with a sexy, salty story and you've got something! Joe's falling for a girl holds, at its basis, the same weight of emotional baggage as any love story. However, the way he pursues and conquerors that love in the end may shock you!
Block has you helplessly rooting for scumbag Joe Marlin, as he cons his way into money and into bed. Apparently Block started this book with the intention of turning it into another of the soft porn novels he was making a paycheck on at the time. However, at some point he felt the material had achieved something slightly more literary than that, so he went with the crime genre.
I'd agree, Grifter's Game is more than a "toss off" fluff piece. The characters are gritty and mostly unlikable, but real. Couple more solid characters with a sexy, salty story and you've got something! Joe's falling for a girl holds, at its basis, the same weight of emotional baggage as any love story. However, the way he pursues and conquerors that love in the end may shock you!
December 3, 2021
There’s a couple of classic crime novel scenarios I’m also ready to read. One is the standard noir plot in which a guy falls for a married woman, and they decide to kill her husband. The other is when somebody stumbles across something valuable like money or drugs that belongs to bad people. Leave it to a legend like Lawrence Block to combine those two.
Joe Martin is a grifter who skips out on one giant hotel bill and goes to Atlantic City to run up another one. Along the one he steals some luggage at the train station and is shocked to find a huge amount of heroin in one of the bags. While he’s trying to figure out what to do with the drugs, he meets and instantly falls for Mona, a gorgeous woman who is unhappily married to a rich man. Before you can say “Double Indemnity", Joe begins to plan a murder.
This is billed as the first novel that Lawrence Block published under his own name, and it’s one he can be proud of. While it has some familiar noir tropes in the set-up, the book takes some twists that do not go where you’d expect them too. There’s great character work done so that you feel some sympathy for Joe even as he immediately shows himself to be a criminal who will take advantage of anyone.
Block started out with a great one here, and just kept getting better over the years.
Joe Martin is a grifter who skips out on one giant hotel bill and goes to Atlantic City to run up another one. Along the one he steals some luggage at the train station and is shocked to find a huge amount of heroin in one of the bags. While he’s trying to figure out what to do with the drugs, he meets and instantly falls for Mona, a gorgeous woman who is unhappily married to a rich man. Before you can say “Double Indemnity", Joe begins to plan a murder.
This is billed as the first novel that Lawrence Block published under his own name, and it’s one he can be proud of. While it has some familiar noir tropes in the set-up, the book takes some twists that do not go where you’d expect them too. There’s great character work done so that you feel some sympathy for Joe even as he immediately shows himself to be a criminal who will take advantage of anyone.
Block started out with a great one here, and just kept getting better over the years.
May 8, 2023
Grifter's Game was originally published as "Mona" in 1961. It was one of the earlier books Block published under his own name rather than a pen name. It is one of a number of books he wrote in the early sixties about grifters and con men along with Girl With the Long Green Heart.
Here, the narrator (Joe Marlin) stays in fancy hotels without any intention of paying the bill. And, "there was a girl in it. Her name was Londa Jamison and she smelled like money." The narrator explains that he liked money. He thought she was Mainline all the way, meaning from the wealthy side of Philly. She thought he was wealthy. Two gold diggers playing for each other!
Having to leave town in a hurry and without luggage, the narrator heads to Atlantic City, hoping to find some wealthy broad to hustle. He appropriates two top grade suitcases with the initials LKB when leaving the railway station because hotels frown on guests without luggage.
On the beach, a gorgeous blonde who looked like she'd been poured into her bathing suit, made our narrator's acquaintance. She confesses that her husband is old boring and rich. Why do pretty girls marry rich old men, she explains.
Our plucky narrator returns to his hotel room and decides to have a gander at what's in the suitcase: sixty cubic inches of raw uncut heroin.
Later, after a steamy encounter on the beach, Mona let's drop that her husband's name is L Keith Bassard. As in, LKB, the initials on the suitcases.
Of course, we are now into Postman Always Rings Twice territory as they both need the money and need each other. As Mona explained, once you get used to having money, you can't do without.
But don't assume that this plot device is just a carbon copy of another book or that there's not more to the story. Remember, this book is called Grifter's Game and Joe may not be the only con artist in the story. And, maybe she had her pigeon in her sights right from the beginning.
This, according to Block's afterword, was the first book he put his own name on and I can see why. This is an excellent book and I challenge you to have the willpower to put it down without finishing it.
Here, the narrator (Joe Marlin) stays in fancy hotels without any intention of paying the bill. And, "there was a girl in it. Her name was Londa Jamison and she smelled like money." The narrator explains that he liked money. He thought she was Mainline all the way, meaning from the wealthy side of Philly. She thought he was wealthy. Two gold diggers playing for each other!
Having to leave town in a hurry and without luggage, the narrator heads to Atlantic City, hoping to find some wealthy broad to hustle. He appropriates two top grade suitcases with the initials LKB when leaving the railway station because hotels frown on guests without luggage.
On the beach, a gorgeous blonde who looked like she'd been poured into her bathing suit, made our narrator's acquaintance. She confesses that her husband is old boring and rich. Why do pretty girls marry rich old men, she explains.
Our plucky narrator returns to his hotel room and decides to have a gander at what's in the suitcase: sixty cubic inches of raw uncut heroin.
Later, after a steamy encounter on the beach, Mona let's drop that her husband's name is L Keith Bassard. As in, LKB, the initials on the suitcases.
Of course, we are now into Postman Always Rings Twice territory as they both need the money and need each other. As Mona explained, once you get used to having money, you can't do without.
But don't assume that this plot device is just a carbon copy of another book or that there's not more to the story. Remember, this book is called Grifter's Game and Joe may not be the only con artist in the story. And, maybe she had her pigeon in her sights right from the beginning.
This, according to Block's afterword, was the first book he put his own name on and I can see why. This is an excellent book and I challenge you to have the willpower to put it down without finishing it.
July 27, 2024
Grifter's Game was originally published as "Mona" in 1961. It was one of the earlier books Block published under his own name rather than a pen name. It is one of a number of books he wrote in the early sixties about grifters and con men along with Girl With the Long Green Heart.
Here, the narrator (Joe Marlin) stays in fancy hotels without any intention of paying the bill. And, "there was a girl in it. Her name was Londa Jamison and she smelled like money." The narrator explains that he liked money. He thought she was "Mainline all the way," meaning from the wealthy side of Philly. She thought he was wealthy. Two gold diggers playing for each other!
Having to leave town in a hurry andwithout luggage, the narrator heads to Atlantic City, hoping to find some wealthy broad to hustle. He appropriates two top grade suitcases with the initials LKB when leaving the railway station because hotels frown on guests without luggage.
On the beach, a gorgeous blonde who looked like she'd been poured into her bathing suit, made our narrator's acquaintance. She confesses that her husband is old boring and rich. Why do pretty girls marry rich old men, she explains. Our plucky narrator returns to his hotel room and decides to have a
gander at what's in the suitcase: sixty cubic inches of raw uncut
heroin. Later, after a steamy encounter on the beach, Mona let's drop that her
husband's name is L Keith Bassard. As in, LKB, the initials on the suitcases.
Of course, we are now into Postman Always Rings Twice territory as they both need the money and need each other. As Mona explained, once you get used to having money, you can't do without. But don't assume that this plot device is just a carbon copy of another book or that there's not more to the story. Remember, this book is called Grifter's Game and Joe may not be the only con artist in the story. And, maybe she had her pigeon in her sights right from the beginning.
This, according to Block's afterword, was the first book he put his own name on and I can see why. This is an excellent book and I challenge you to have the willpower to put it down without finishing it.
Here, the narrator (Joe Marlin) stays in fancy hotels without any intention of paying the bill. And, "there was a girl in it. Her name was Londa Jamison and she smelled like money." The narrator explains that he liked money. He thought she was "Mainline all the way," meaning from the wealthy side of Philly. She thought he was wealthy. Two gold diggers playing for each other!
Having to leave town in a hurry andwithout luggage, the narrator heads to Atlantic City, hoping to find some wealthy broad to hustle. He appropriates two top grade suitcases with the initials LKB when leaving the railway station because hotels frown on guests without luggage.
On the beach, a gorgeous blonde who looked like she'd been poured into her bathing suit, made our narrator's acquaintance. She confesses that her husband is old boring and rich. Why do pretty girls marry rich old men, she explains. Our plucky narrator returns to his hotel room and decides to have a
gander at what's in the suitcase: sixty cubic inches of raw uncut
heroin. Later, after a steamy encounter on the beach, Mona let's drop that her
husband's name is L Keith Bassard. As in, LKB, the initials on the suitcases.
Of course, we are now into Postman Always Rings Twice territory as they both need the money and need each other. As Mona explained, once you get used to having money, you can't do without. But don't assume that this plot device is just a carbon copy of another book or that there's not more to the story. Remember, this book is called Grifter's Game and Joe may not be the only con artist in the story. And, maybe she had her pigeon in her sights right from the beginning.
This, according to Block's afterword, was the first book he put his own name on and I can see why. This is an excellent book and I challenge you to have the willpower to put it down without finishing it.
December 12, 2025
"Las Vegas is a funny town in the morning . . . I sat at a lunch counter, drinking the first cup of coffee and smoking the first cigarette. A few feet away somebody's grandmother was making her change disappear into a chromed-up slot machine. It bothered me. Gambling before noon looks about as proper to me as laying your own sister right in the front pew on a Sunday morning. Well, call me a Puritan - that's how my mind works." -- the introspection of con man Joe Marlin, on page 171
Grifter's Game - originally published as the less-imaginatively-titled Mona back in 1961 - was author Block's first book issued under his real name, as he wielded five or six pseudonyms with his gritty early crime fiction written at a tender age just after he had left college. It's the third of his novels (all courtesy of the 'Hard Case Crime' imprint) that I have read this calendar year, and it falls squarely between the lackluster The Girl With Deep Blue Eyes and the very good Sinner Man. A twenty-nine year-old East Coast-based con man absconds from a hotel bill in Philadelphia and hops a train to Atlantic City, NJ for a new town and a new start for his felonious ways. Upon arrival he boosts two suitcases AND meets a fetching but bored young housewife on the beach, thus beginning a torrid affair. The hardboiled-ish plot reaches a nice collision course moment when both the contents and the actual owner of said suitcases, plus the true identity of the housewife 'Mona,' are revealed to readers. However, this relatively good build-up (approximately the initial two-thirds of the book) then fails to sail into a solid third-act, which boasted a tasteless and mean-spirited conclusion.
Grifter's Game - originally published as the less-imaginatively-titled Mona back in 1961 - was author Block's first book issued under his real name, as he wielded five or six pseudonyms with his gritty early crime fiction written at a tender age just after he had left college. It's the third of his novels (all courtesy of the 'Hard Case Crime' imprint) that I have read this calendar year, and it falls squarely between the lackluster The Girl With Deep Blue Eyes and the very good Sinner Man. A twenty-nine year-old East Coast-based con man absconds from a hotel bill in Philadelphia and hops a train to Atlantic City, NJ for a new town and a new start for his felonious ways. Upon arrival he boosts two suitcases AND meets a fetching but bored young housewife on the beach, thus beginning a torrid affair. The hardboiled-ish plot reaches a nice collision course moment when both the contents and the actual owner of said suitcases, plus the true identity of the housewife 'Mona,' are revealed to readers. However, this relatively good build-up (approximately the initial two-thirds of the book) then fails to sail into a solid third-act, which boasted a tasteless and mean-spirited conclusion.
June 20, 2013
I am unfamiliar with Lawrence Block opus, but if his other books are as entertaining and well written as Grifter's Game I can see myself going back for more, even starting on some of his long series. Among the things I liked :
- tight writing, with very short sentences delivered like a machine gun burst
- no padding to make up unnecessary bulk, good focus on the main storyline and the main actors
- natural flowing dialogue,
- very good foreshadowing of coming events, starting right with the opening chapter, where two con artists are trying to outwit each other at the seduction game.
Joe Marlin is a grifter, going by a different name in every city, checking in only at luxury hotels and then leaving without paying, always on the lookout for a fool to be separated from his(or preferably her) money. One of the prerequisites for a successful career in crime is a very good opinion of your own worth (self-confidence), and Joe has it in spades, helped along by a talent for quick thinking in tight situations and the willingness to take risks.I was struck at first by how analytical and detached Joe is in dealing with the outside world, completely amoral and self serving. That is, until he meets Mona in Atlantic City and falls for her big time. I guess every reader familiar with the femmes-fatales of the noir classics would instantly recognize Mona as another player, but Joe is led by his hormones and starts planning how to separate her from her rich husband and get her, and her money, in an exclusive deal.
Most of the fun of the novel is about Joe becoming aware of the chump he has been :
I tried to imagine a movie in which a hero steals two pieces of luggage, one of which is loaded with a fortune in raw heroin. Then the same hero happens to pick up or get picked up by a girl who subsequently turns out to be the wife of the guy who owns the luggage and the heroin.
Coincidental?
If the story stopped at this moment I would have rated it a decent thriller, professionally written but not especially memorable. But Lawrence Block keeps the big cards for the endgame, a showdown in Nevada ( Money made in bootlegging and gunrunning and dope smuggling and whoremongering was invested quite properly in an entire town that stood as a monument to human stupidity, a boomtown in the state with sparsest population and the densest people in the country. Vegas. ) that completely blurs the line between who is the player and who is getting played. Another thing to be decided is wether Joe will be dominated by his passion for Mona or by his desire for revenge. Read to find out.
- tight writing, with very short sentences delivered like a machine gun burst
- no padding to make up unnecessary bulk, good focus on the main storyline and the main actors
- natural flowing dialogue,
- very good foreshadowing of coming events, starting right with the opening chapter, where two con artists are trying to outwit each other at the seduction game.
Joe Marlin is a grifter, going by a different name in every city, checking in only at luxury hotels and then leaving without paying, always on the lookout for a fool to be separated from his(or preferably her) money. One of the prerequisites for a successful career in crime is a very good opinion of your own worth (self-confidence), and Joe has it in spades, helped along by a talent for quick thinking in tight situations and the willingness to take risks.I was struck at first by how analytical and detached Joe is in dealing with the outside world, completely amoral and self serving. That is, until he meets Mona in Atlantic City and falls for her big time. I guess every reader familiar with the femmes-fatales of the noir classics would instantly recognize Mona as another player, but Joe is led by his hormones and starts planning how to separate her from her rich husband and get her, and her money, in an exclusive deal.
Most of the fun of the novel is about Joe becoming aware of the chump he has been :
I tried to imagine a movie in which a hero steals two pieces of luggage, one of which is loaded with a fortune in raw heroin. Then the same hero happens to pick up or get picked up by a girl who subsequently turns out to be the wife of the guy who owns the luggage and the heroin.
Coincidental?
If the story stopped at this moment I would have rated it a decent thriller, professionally written but not especially memorable. But Lawrence Block keeps the big cards for the endgame, a showdown in Nevada ( Money made in bootlegging and gunrunning and dope smuggling and whoremongering was invested quite properly in an entire town that stood as a monument to human stupidity, a boomtown in the state with sparsest population and the densest people in the country. Vegas. ) that completely blurs the line between who is the player and who is getting played. Another thing to be decided is wether Joe will be dominated by his passion for Mona or by his desire for revenge. Read to find out.
December 29, 2012
#8 Favourite Read in 2012
Holy Moly! Lawrence Block (and Hard Case Crime) just sucker punched me with this brilliant read. Presumably I'm being punished for not having read any of his work before now (and for the stack of a dozen Hard Case Crime books I've got sitting waiting to be read,) but rest assured I'm as hooked as the next man after this brilliant piece of noir fiction with the ending that makes Nightmare Alley feel like a unicorn ride through a flowery meadow to the end of the rainbow where the dame of your dreams is frolicking in the gold as she awaits your arrival.
Right up until the final awful chapter I'm enjoying the ride, thinking that this Lawrence Block fella is a damn fine writer of noir and how I wish I hadn't known it was originally entitled Mona (a title that spells out in glorious glowing neon just exactly what the double cross is going to be.) The characters were fabulous, infinitely readable and Joe Marlin is the perfect protagonist for this type of story - smart but not too smart, ruthless but aware of the lines that shouldn't be crossed and a battle hardened professional con man able to fend for himself.
Block churns out line after line of fantastically quotable observations and dialogue, the man is a master of the genre for a reason; where others use the occasional great line to disguise the shoddy workmanship, Block's talent allows him to build a solid platform from a combination of plot and pure writers craft from which to shoot for the moon with the constant barrage of quips, one-liners and the sardonic outlook of his lead character. And Joe Marlin is the kind of guy who sees the worst of everyone and everything.
This all combined to create a fast-paced narrative that I couldn't bare to put down. After several disappointing reads in my recent reading Lawrence Block's Grifter's Game was exactly what the doctor ordered. You too should mainline this book.
Holy Moly! Lawrence Block (and Hard Case Crime) just sucker punched me with this brilliant read. Presumably I'm being punished for not having read any of his work before now (and for the stack of a dozen Hard Case Crime books I've got sitting waiting to be read,) but rest assured I'm as hooked as the next man after this brilliant piece of noir fiction with the ending that makes Nightmare Alley feel like a unicorn ride through a flowery meadow to the end of the rainbow where the dame of your dreams is frolicking in the gold as she awaits your arrival.
Right up until the final awful chapter I'm enjoying the ride, thinking that this Lawrence Block fella is a damn fine writer of noir and how I wish I hadn't known it was originally entitled Mona (a title that spells out in glorious glowing neon just exactly what the double cross is going to be.) The characters were fabulous, infinitely readable and Joe Marlin is the perfect protagonist for this type of story - smart but not too smart, ruthless but aware of the lines that shouldn't be crossed and a battle hardened professional con man able to fend for himself.
Block churns out line after line of fantastically quotable observations and dialogue, the man is a master of the genre for a reason; where others use the occasional great line to disguise the shoddy workmanship, Block's talent allows him to build a solid platform from a combination of plot and pure writers craft from which to shoot for the moon with the constant barrage of quips, one-liners and the sardonic outlook of his lead character. And Joe Marlin is the kind of guy who sees the worst of everyone and everything.
This all combined to create a fast-paced narrative that I couldn't bare to put down. After several disappointing reads in my recent reading Lawrence Block's Grifter's Game was exactly what the doctor ordered. You too should mainline this book.
December 3, 2021
I've many a lot of LB's books (well over 50) but so prolific a writer is he that there's probably just as many I haven't read. My favourites are probably his well(ish) known series: Scudder, Rhobenbarr and Keller. But many of his one off novels are excellent too - my personal favourite being Small Town.
Every now and then I feel the need to dip into another Block book. They are consistently well structured and cleverly plotted; this is the case whether you pick up one of his later offerings or one of his early works. So I had no doubt this early story from the master of crime would be any different. I wasn't disappointed.
I won't go into the plot itself other than to say it's set some 50 years ago, that it features a swindler or grifter - well, this much is obvious from the title - and that it's great fun trying to work out what will happen next, amongst the various twists and turns. Safe to say it's as satisfying as a Cornish pasty on a cold winter's day.
Good job I've still got a few more of LB's stories tucked away on my Kindle. After a few average novels, anchoring up in LB's safe harbour is always a welcome place to be.
Every now and then I feel the need to dip into another Block book. They are consistently well structured and cleverly plotted; this is the case whether you pick up one of his later offerings or one of his early works. So I had no doubt this early story from the master of crime would be any different. I wasn't disappointed.
I won't go into the plot itself other than to say it's set some 50 years ago, that it features a swindler or grifter - well, this much is obvious from the title - and that it's great fun trying to work out what will happen next, amongst the various twists and turns. Safe to say it's as satisfying as a Cornish pasty on a cold winter's day.
Good job I've still got a few more of LB's stories tucked away on my Kindle. After a few average novels, anchoring up in LB's safe harbour is always a welcome place to be.
June 18, 2024
Ein Krimi aus dem Jahr 1961, der sich sprachlich liest wie ein Groschenroman, inhaltlich aber unnötig in die Länge gezogen wurde. Der Ton des Ich-Erzählers war mir zu selbstverliebt und hatte auch eine machohafte Attitüde. Das wäre noch zu verkraften gewesen, wenn die Geschichte eines Betrügers und Blenders nicht so belanglos gewesen wäre. Das hätte der Stoff einer Gaunerkomödie aus den 50er Jahren sein können mit Cary Grant. Im Grunde haben wir nur einen richtigen Plottwist, der etwas Überraschung bietet. Das Ende war dann völlig daneben mit einer ekelhaften Form der Selbstjustiz und einem fast unerträglich, selbstgerechten Geschwafel des Protagonisten. Ein Roman, der schlecht gealtert ist.
June 9, 2014
I hope that the men I know take it as a compliment that I had a little trouble buying-in with this one. Don't get me wrong, Lawrence Block knows how to write his genre better than most, so I'll take some of the blame for my failure to suspend disbelief.
May 4, 2021
Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series is so terrific, I hadn't expected to like his first novel published with his own name on it, wherein he is channeling Jim Thompson and James L. Cain in writing a standalone first person novel told from the perspective of a nihilistic drifter grifter who finds and steals a suitcase full of heroin. More money than he has ever seen.
The story opens with his meeting and engaging in some reciprocal manipulation with a woman, in another town, but after he moves to a fresh place where they don't know him and he has the heroin, he meets a woman on a beach, makes steamy late-night love with her, and at some point finds she is the wife of the heroin's owner, a rich (of course, fat, older, ugly) gangster. Wow, I love you, he thinks. He hits on a great idea: Hey, let's kill the guy so we can have all the love and all the money, not just the cash from the horse. But things don't exactly work out as he planned. Of course. Grifting is a game that more than one can play, as it turns out.
Short and sweet and accomplished and entertaining. Not as good as Thompson and Cain in their territory, but impressive. No one to admire here except the author.
The story opens with his meeting and engaging in some reciprocal manipulation with a woman, in another town, but after he moves to a fresh place where they don't know him and he has the heroin, he meets a woman on a beach, makes steamy late-night love with her, and at some point finds she is the wife of the heroin's owner, a rich (of course, fat, older, ugly) gangster. Wow, I love you, he thinks. He hits on a great idea: Hey, let's kill the guy so we can have all the love and all the money, not just the cash from the horse. But things don't exactly work out as he planned. Of course. Grifting is a game that more than one can play, as it turns out.
Short and sweet and accomplished and entertaining. Not as good as Thompson and Cain in their territory, but impressive. No one to admire here except the author.
February 5, 2013
Interesting premise that turns depressing. Easy to tell this is a 50 year old story. 4 of 10 stars.
May 13, 2015
Pulpy Tagline: "The living was high and the pickings came easy – till my one wild love became my sweet, slow death"
I've started reading and enjoying Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series this year and I decided to try this book out, an early noir one-off by the author which also happens to be the first reprint by the popular Hard Case Crime series. A drifting con man (his name might be David Gavilan, or it might be Joe Marlin) hops from town to town, jumping the bill at fancy hotels. His smooth system gets interrupted in Atlantic City however, when he acquires some stolen luggage from a train station that turns out to be carrying a brick of heroin, as well as a sexy dame that ends up stealing his heart and common sense.
I've started reading and enjoying Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series this year and I decided to try this book out, an early noir one-off by the author which also happens to be the first reprint by the popular Hard Case Crime series. A drifting con man (his name might be David Gavilan, or it might be Joe Marlin) hops from town to town, jumping the bill at fancy hotels. His smooth system gets interrupted in Atlantic City however, when he acquires some stolen luggage from a train station that turns out to be carrying a brick of heroin, as well as a sexy dame that ends up stealing his heart and common sense.
“She knew how much I needed her. And now she was teasing, playing games. I looked at her and watched her turn into a sex symbol in front of my eyes. She did not look sweet and virginal and lovely anymore. I looked at the very simple summer dress and saw breasts and belly and hips. I looked at her eyes and saw lust as naked as my own.”Once again, Block proves to be an awesome writer with a great sense of pacing and momentum! This story moved at such a clip, it was painful having to put it down to get back to doing life stuff. It's best to read this not knowing too much about the plot, and ride the waves of it's great twists right up until the depraved finale!
“She made love with the freshness of an impatient virgin and the ingenuity of a sex-scarred whore.”Originally titled as Mona and also released as Sweet Slow Death (awesome title!)
March 5, 2012
If this is any indication of what I have ahead of me with Hard Case Crime, I'm a happy man. Not only is this novel so tightly edited, it's a no-nonsense, straight up page-turner.
When I was hit with the first plot twist, my mouth dropped open. Maybe some people might be able to spot it early on (if you read the plot description, I believe it's in there) but it came to me out of seemingly nowhere. As the novel progresses, you begin to really sympathise with Joe and start to like the guy; rooting for he and Mona to prevail.
Which is probably why the ending had such a strong impact on me. You could have asked me in the beginning to try and predict where this was going to end up and I could say with absolute certainty, there's no way I could've seen this one coming. The ending not only shocked me, it felt like a punch in the stomach. I shouldn't use the word "satisfying" given the events in question but coming across something that dark was pretty refreshing.
Lawrence Block is clearly a versatile writer. He can write longer fiction within a series (his signature Matt Scudder character) as well as short, cut-to-the-chase fiction with this one-off Grifter's Game novel. I'm pleased to see he has more than a few entries with this publisher and can't wait to devour more.
When I was hit with the first plot twist, my mouth dropped open. Maybe some people might be able to spot it early on (if you read the plot description, I believe it's in there) but it came to me out of seemingly nowhere. As the novel progresses, you begin to really sympathise with Joe and start to like the guy; rooting for he and Mona to prevail.
Which is probably why the ending had such a strong impact on me. You could have asked me in the beginning to try and predict where this was going to end up and I could say with absolute certainty, there's no way I could've seen this one coming. The ending not only shocked me, it felt like a punch in the stomach. I shouldn't use the word "satisfying" given the events in question but coming across something that dark was pretty refreshing.
Lawrence Block is clearly a versatile writer. He can write longer fiction within a series (his signature Matt Scudder character) as well as short, cut-to-the-chase fiction with this one-off Grifter's Game novel. I'm pleased to see he has more than a few entries with this publisher and can't wait to devour more.
September 1, 2011
Wow, this was dark.
Until the killing immortalised in the cover art, you could be forgiven for thinking of this as a dashing caper with a charming, crooked narrator spouting quotable one-liners and turning romantic. Then things become darker after the murder; the killer isn't quite racked with guilt, he says, but spects of the act keep returning to haunt him. Then, as happens in a noir, there's one double-cross more than expected and things get seriously dark. I thought Jim Thompson gave an already dark narrative an ending that pretty much tipped things over into utter existential horror in 'The Getaway' but for my money, Block ups the ante here with his equally dark but more plausible ending. Fuck, a good noir makes Lovecraftian horror seem cheery in comparison, doesn't it? I finished this novel in two entranced sittings, and look forward to delving deeper into a series of paperbacks that comes highly recommended by friends on goodreads and elsewhere.
Until the killing immortalised in the cover art, you could be forgiven for thinking of this as a dashing caper with a charming, crooked narrator spouting quotable one-liners and turning romantic. Then things become darker after the murder; the killer isn't quite racked with guilt, he says, but spects of the act keep returning to haunt him. Then, as happens in a noir, there's one double-cross more than expected and things get seriously dark. I thought Jim Thompson gave an already dark narrative an ending that pretty much tipped things over into utter existential horror in 'The Getaway' but for my money, Block ups the ante here with his equally dark but more plausible ending. Fuck, a good noir makes Lovecraftian horror seem cheery in comparison, doesn't it? I finished this novel in two entranced sittings, and look forward to delving deeper into a series of paperbacks that comes highly recommended by friends on goodreads and elsewhere.
July 26, 2014
Posted to The Literary Lawyer.ca
Sex, Drugs and Cigarettes - 4 Stars
This was my first foray into the world of Hard Case Crime. While these books can be read in whichever order you please, as usual, I felt compelled to start at the beginning. What a great place to start! Lawrence Block has a deceptively simple writing style. He gives you what you need, nothing more nothing less. The result is a fast paced novel with a lot of story stuffed into 200 pages. When I am in the mood for some gritty pulp noir, I will be back to Hard Case Crime.
Plot Outline
Joe Marlin (or whichever alias he is using) is a little more than a small time con man. His good looks and his natural charm often find him in the arms (and beds) of needy and wealthy women. Once he is in, he takes what he can and runs for the next town. After a string of bad luck and less than profitable conquests, Joe is forced to skip town. As he had to leave his goods behind, he steals some expensive luggage from a train station and finds he is inadvertently in possession of a King's Ransom worth of heroin. Unsure of how to cash in on his newfound wealth, he puts himself up a nice hotel to think it over. Here he meets the intoxicating, rich and unhappily married Mona and finds himself in a plot to rid himself her husband so he can have his happily ever after. Will Mona be his meal ticket or his downfall?
The Dirt
You Can't Beat the Atmosphere
The novel is wonderfully atmospheric. This is even more impressive given the minimalistic writing style of the author. This is what I expect from any crime noir novel and it does not fail to deliver.
Once the atmosphere is set, the author does not abandon the plot. If not a tad predictable, there are a few interesting plot twists. While I was not surprised by most of the twists along the way, I was surprised by the ending and actions of the characters. I found it to be more devious than I had expected and frankly an unexpected form of violence.
This novel was written in 1961 and as you may imagine, it will not meet any modern standard for political correctness. Some readers may find the depictions of women to be distasteful and some will find the final scene to be in bad taste. Personally, I found this aspect to be an interesting as it snapshot of past standards. Yes, people may still hold similar beliefs but I think you get my point.
While you may not care about political correctness, you may be put off by the sex. It is certainly a central theme of this novel. People are blinded, mislead and just plain stupid because of sex. A significant portion of the 200 pages take place in the bedroom (or some such substitute) or devoted to worrying, thinking and discussing sex. While the themes of sex is pervasive, it is treated in a matter of fact fashion and while moderately graphic, it is not written to be erotic, at least not by today's standards.
Final Thoughts
This is some great noir pulp. If you like characters who are controlled by their vices and find themselves is bad situations because of this, I would recommend this read. I hope the other novels in the series are of similar quality as I most definitely plan on reading more.
It is difficult to find commentary on the sex/violence/language content of book if you are interested. I make an effort to give you the information so you can make an informed decision before reading. *Disclaimer* I do not take note or count the occurrences of adult language as I read. I am simply giving approximations.
Scale 1 - Lowest 5 - Highest
Sex - 4
Sex is pervasive and the moderately graphic. That said, it is written in such a way that it is not really erotic. Sex takes up a significant portion of this short novel and some people will find it to be offensive.
Language - 3
There is moderate use of adult language. None of the characters are exactly "virtuous" and are quite liberal when it comes to any vice, swearing included.
Violence - 2.5
There is a murder and the planning of a murder. A woman is slapped on more than one occasion. There is some other "non traditional violence" at the end of the book. Some readers will find it to be abusive violence and may be offended.
Sex, Drugs and Cigarettes - 4 Stars
This was my first foray into the world of Hard Case Crime. While these books can be read in whichever order you please, as usual, I felt compelled to start at the beginning. What a great place to start! Lawrence Block has a deceptively simple writing style. He gives you what you need, nothing more nothing less. The result is a fast paced novel with a lot of story stuffed into 200 pages. When I am in the mood for some gritty pulp noir, I will be back to Hard Case Crime.
Plot Outline
Joe Marlin (or whichever alias he is using) is a little more than a small time con man. His good looks and his natural charm often find him in the arms (and beds) of needy and wealthy women. Once he is in, he takes what he can and runs for the next town. After a string of bad luck and less than profitable conquests, Joe is forced to skip town. As he had to leave his goods behind, he steals some expensive luggage from a train station and finds he is inadvertently in possession of a King's Ransom worth of heroin. Unsure of how to cash in on his newfound wealth, he puts himself up a nice hotel to think it over. Here he meets the intoxicating, rich and unhappily married Mona and finds himself in a plot to rid himself her husband so he can have his happily ever after. Will Mona be his meal ticket or his downfall?
The Dirt
You Can't Beat the Atmosphere
The novel is wonderfully atmospheric. This is even more impressive given the minimalistic writing style of the author. This is what I expect from any crime noir novel and it does not fail to deliver.
Once the atmosphere is set, the author does not abandon the plot. If not a tad predictable, there are a few interesting plot twists. While I was not surprised by most of the twists along the way, I was surprised by the ending and actions of the characters. I found it to be more devious than I had expected and frankly an unexpected form of violence.
This novel was written in 1961 and as you may imagine, it will not meet any modern standard for political correctness. Some readers may find the depictions of women to be distasteful and some will find the final scene to be in bad taste. Personally, I found this aspect to be an interesting as it snapshot of past standards. Yes, people may still hold similar beliefs but I think you get my point.
While you may not care about political correctness, you may be put off by the sex. It is certainly a central theme of this novel. People are blinded, mislead and just plain stupid because of sex. A significant portion of the 200 pages take place in the bedroom (or some such substitute) or devoted to worrying, thinking and discussing sex. While the themes of sex is pervasive, it is treated in a matter of fact fashion and while moderately graphic, it is not written to be erotic, at least not by today's standards.
Final Thoughts
This is some great noir pulp. If you like characters who are controlled by their vices and find themselves is bad situations because of this, I would recommend this read. I hope the other novels in the series are of similar quality as I most definitely plan on reading more.
It is difficult to find commentary on the sex/violence/language content of book if you are interested. I make an effort to give you the information so you can make an informed decision before reading. *Disclaimer* I do not take note or count the occurrences of adult language as I read. I am simply giving approximations.
Scale 1 - Lowest 5 - Highest
Sex - 4
Sex is pervasive and the moderately graphic. That said, it is written in such a way that it is not really erotic. Sex takes up a significant portion of this short novel and some people will find it to be offensive.
Language - 3
There is moderate use of adult language. None of the characters are exactly "virtuous" and are quite liberal when it comes to any vice, swearing included.
Violence - 2.5
There is a murder and the planning of a murder. A woman is slapped on more than one occasion. There is some other "non traditional violence" at the end of the book. Some readers will find it to be abusive violence and may be offended.
April 16, 2025
Brilliant characters, brilliant mystery, and scheming. Amazing dialogue and intrigue with an ending I didn't expect. Block is the best of the best for me in the pulpy crime genre. 4.5 stars.
December 17, 2011
After plowing through about 1500 pages of the last two Dark Tower novels, Grifter's Game was exactly what I needed: A 200 pager cut-to-the-chase no nonsense story-driven novel.
I've read quite a bit of Lawrence Block, I think about five of the Matthew Scudder ones, and I enjoyed every one of them. Very dark crime fiction with a strong lead character. But a been there, done that attitude struck, and he fell off my radar for years.
Then I saw my Goodreads friend Stephen had hit a major scoregasm when he read it, so of course after reading that I was reminded that I had to get back to reading this guy.
Now, this was written back in 1961. I'm a big Mad Men fan, so it was very easy to put myself into the time and attitudes of the early sixties.
That wasn't really a spoiler to the story, but I hid it because it came unexpected to me and the surprise of it should be preserved. :)
Like other reviewers, the resolution of the story will also stick with me a long time. This is very dark, and considering the time in which it was written, I am bumping what would be a four-star read to five stars. Highly recommended to those who choose story first when looking for good reads.
I've read quite a bit of Lawrence Block, I think about five of the Matthew Scudder ones, and I enjoyed every one of them. Very dark crime fiction with a strong lead character. But a been there, done that attitude struck, and he fell off my radar for years.
Then I saw my Goodreads friend Stephen had hit a major scoregasm when he read it, so of course after reading that I was reminded that I had to get back to reading this guy.
Now, this was written back in 1961. I'm a big Mad Men fan, so it was very easy to put myself into the time and attitudes of the early sixties.
That wasn't really a spoiler to the story, but I hid it because it came unexpected to me and the surprise of it should be preserved. :)
Like other reviewers, the resolution of the story will also stick with me a long time. This is very dark, and considering the time in which it was written, I am bumping what would be a four-star read to five stars. Highly recommended to those who choose story first when looking for good reads.
August 7, 2022
This starts out as a moderately interesting crime novel but the sadistic ending is quite shocking and brings it up a notch.
December 14, 2015
Leonard K. Blake is a conman hiding out in Atlantic City, but of course that’s not his real name, nor is it David Gavilan or Joe Marlin. He has a knack for telling a story and knows exactly what people want to hear in order to take advantage of them. Then he meets Mona, a blonde bombshell, bored wife to a millionaire. He can make a lot of money from this woman but when he steals a suitcase full of heroin from a train station that belongs to her husband things change. A brick of pure heroin will either make him rich or dead and so could Mona.
Originally released in 1961 under the name Mona and later released as Sweet Slow Death, Lawrence Block’s novel Grifter’s Game (the title he originally wanted to use) is the first book in the now popular Hard Case Crime series. This is a gritty noir at its best, something Block is known for and something readers come to expect from this imprint. A fast paced narrative that will keep the reader on its toes right to the end.
I’m not going to lie to you, while reading this book I have to think back on my past and all the dumb things I’ve done and I thought to myself, I might have been a pretty good grifter if I was born back then. Honestly I knew how to lie and manipulate, not something I’m proud of and not something I ever want to do again. So this book hit a little close to home with me and reminded me of the past I would rather leave behind; something that makes this a difficult book for me to read.
The more I read Lawrence Block, the more I like his style which is good because he has published a lot of books, most in different series so it’s always nice to read a standalone. From the snappy dialogue to the plotting, Block has really crafted his style that could rival some of the greats from the golden age of pulp. He really knows how to write both noir and hard-boiled novels that remain gritty and fresh, after so many books I’m not sure how he manages to do this.
Grifter’s Game is probably not the best novel to start with if you’ve never read Lawrence Block, but is definitely one worth trying. He really captured how I would picture an immoral, unsympathetic lowlife and somehow manages to still get the read to care about what happens. This was the perfect book to launch the Hard Case Crime imprint with. It has everything you want in a pulp; plot, fast pacing, complex characters, gritty prose, great dialogue and the shocking end.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...
Originally released in 1961 under the name Mona and later released as Sweet Slow Death, Lawrence Block’s novel Grifter’s Game (the title he originally wanted to use) is the first book in the now popular Hard Case Crime series. This is a gritty noir at its best, something Block is known for and something readers come to expect from this imprint. A fast paced narrative that will keep the reader on its toes right to the end.
I’m not going to lie to you, while reading this book I have to think back on my past and all the dumb things I’ve done and I thought to myself, I might have been a pretty good grifter if I was born back then. Honestly I knew how to lie and manipulate, not something I’m proud of and not something I ever want to do again. So this book hit a little close to home with me and reminded me of the past I would rather leave behind; something that makes this a difficult book for me to read.
The more I read Lawrence Block, the more I like his style which is good because he has published a lot of books, most in different series so it’s always nice to read a standalone. From the snappy dialogue to the plotting, Block has really crafted his style that could rival some of the greats from the golden age of pulp. He really knows how to write both noir and hard-boiled novels that remain gritty and fresh, after so many books I’m not sure how he manages to do this.
Grifter’s Game is probably not the best novel to start with if you’ve never read Lawrence Block, but is definitely one worth trying. He really captured how I would picture an immoral, unsympathetic lowlife and somehow manages to still get the read to care about what happens. This was the perfect book to launch the Hard Case Crime imprint with. It has everything you want in a pulp; plot, fast pacing, complex characters, gritty prose, great dialogue and the shocking end.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...
May 12, 2023
10/2014
From 1961, this book was originally titled "Mona," which might make more sense than "Grifter's Game," which sort of doesn't. Definitely one of those early sixties sex-and-drugs paperbacks that were sold at drugstores and newsstands. It was good, sort of, but I didn't love it.
From 1961, this book was originally titled "Mona," which might make more sense than "Grifter's Game," which sort of doesn't. Definitely one of those early sixties sex-and-drugs paperbacks that were sold at drugstores and newsstands. It was good, sort of, but I didn't love it.
May 21, 2013
Started out really disliking this book for about the 1st 100 pages. Too predictable, I thought.
Somewhere around page 129 I became totally immersed in unexpected plot developments and suddenly realized that I'd guessed wrong.
This novel wasn't going to turn out the way I'd thought.
The ending was a stunner all the way out through the final 5-7 pages.
Looking forward to reading everybody else's reviews.
Somewhere around page 129 I became totally immersed in unexpected plot developments and suddenly realized that I'd guessed wrong.
This novel wasn't going to turn out the way I'd thought.
The ending was a stunner all the way out through the final 5-7 pages.
Looking forward to reading everybody else's reviews.
April 23, 2015
First book of his Hard Case Crime series,which are written under his own name. As all of Lawrence Block's books,it is very entertaining! Since it was written in 1960 the prices are all out wack by today's prices.Makes you want to have 2015 money in 1960!
December 2, 2020
Fantastic noir full of underhanded slimeballs. As if that wasn't enough to seal the deal for me, it also has one of the more twisted endings that I have come across in a while.
January 8, 2020
Here's a sweet little love story about Joe and Mona. Joe's a grifter who leaves Philadelphia after failing to make a decent score. Low on cash, he makes it to Atlantic City where he decides to lift some luggage from the train depot so that he can check into a decent hotel without any suspicious notions tossed his way. Turns out that the luggage he steals contains more than just clothes. Now Joe has either a windfall or a world of trouble on his hands. Then along comes the girl. There's always The Girl. Mona and Joe fall for each other big time. Problem is, Mona is married to a bigshot. A bigshot that Joe happens to have a unique relationship with, as it turns out. Cool and fast, novels like this are what I devoured growing up. I liked it.
April 5, 2009
Lawrence Block’s Grifter’s Game is a vintage title, originally published as Mona in 1961. Block does what any good hard-boiled crime writer should be able to do–take a hackneyed set of characters and plot devices and turn them into a thoroughly entertaining read. Not every portrait of a lady has to be the Mona Lisa, but the artist should at least be able to make the subject look decent enough on canvas. Otherwise, he might want to try his hand at bricklaying instead.
David Gavilan is a con man whose specialty is the short con. His attitude towards life is exceedingly simple and honest: “I liked money; you could buy nice things with it.” Recovering from a backfired con, Gavilan grabs a couple of suitcases that have been left unattended. Shocked by the contents, Gavilan, now Leonard K. Blake, is thrust in a direction he could have never anticipated.
And then there’s the girl. There’s always a girl. On the beach in Atlantic City, no less. In many ways, the storyline is nothing short of rote; these kinds of stories either appeal to you or they don’t. Block systematically takes his character down a road that is at once easily predictable and exceedingly entertaining. What is most striking about Block’s writing, however, are the unapologetic descriptions of L.K.B.’s thoughts. Take this gem for example:
So I kissed her a little on the fourth date, and kissed her a little more on the fifth date, and got her damned bra off on the sixth date and played games with her breasts. They were nice breasts. Firm, sweet, big. I stroked them and fondled them and she seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.
There are plenty of these sorts of passages all through Game, and they might come across as titillating if only they weren’t buried in the grim landscape Block paints. Other than these sorts of displays, Block doesn’t waste words on flowery descriptions. The narrative flows quickly from page to page, constantly moving almost too quickly to what is an inevitable end.
That is, until you reach the denoument. At first, it seems that the story reaches its climax with too many pages left. Then, the story shifts from hard-boiled crime to something else entirely–something far more sinister. To hint at the ending would be an injustice to the novel. Instead, let’s just say the final passages display a level of cruelty that would easily horrify the amateur pulp reader.
Grifter’s Game is the first of several standalone stories by Block that have appeared in the Hard Case catalog. Block is also well-known for sixteen novels featuring private investigator Matthew Scudder as well as several other recurring characters that have appeared over the years. He also co-wrote the screenplay for My Blueberry Nights, which was a wonderful movie from the great director Wong Kar Wai. Based on my two experiences with Block’s storytelling to date, I look forward to writing many more reviews of his work.
David Gavilan is a con man whose specialty is the short con. His attitude towards life is exceedingly simple and honest: “I liked money; you could buy nice things with it.” Recovering from a backfired con, Gavilan grabs a couple of suitcases that have been left unattended. Shocked by the contents, Gavilan, now Leonard K. Blake, is thrust in a direction he could have never anticipated.
And then there’s the girl. There’s always a girl. On the beach in Atlantic City, no less. In many ways, the storyline is nothing short of rote; these kinds of stories either appeal to you or they don’t. Block systematically takes his character down a road that is at once easily predictable and exceedingly entertaining. What is most striking about Block’s writing, however, are the unapologetic descriptions of L.K.B.’s thoughts. Take this gem for example:
So I kissed her a little on the fourth date, and kissed her a little more on the fifth date, and got her damned bra off on the sixth date and played games with her breasts. They were nice breasts. Firm, sweet, big. I stroked them and fondled them and she seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.
There are plenty of these sorts of passages all through Game, and they might come across as titillating if only they weren’t buried in the grim landscape Block paints. Other than these sorts of displays, Block doesn’t waste words on flowery descriptions. The narrative flows quickly from page to page, constantly moving almost too quickly to what is an inevitable end.
That is, until you reach the denoument. At first, it seems that the story reaches its climax with too many pages left. Then, the story shifts from hard-boiled crime to something else entirely–something far more sinister. To hint at the ending would be an injustice to the novel. Instead, let’s just say the final passages display a level of cruelty that would easily horrify the amateur pulp reader.
Grifter’s Game is the first of several standalone stories by Block that have appeared in the Hard Case catalog. Block is also well-known for sixteen novels featuring private investigator Matthew Scudder as well as several other recurring characters that have appeared over the years. He also co-wrote the screenplay for My Blueberry Nights, which was a wonderful movie from the great director Wong Kar Wai. Based on my two experiences with Block’s storytelling to date, I look forward to writing many more reviews of his work.
May 10, 2009
Small-time grifter hits the big one when he steals a suitcase with $1 million in heroin stashed inside. Copyright 1961 by Lawrence Block (original title 'Mona') but republished in 2004 as part of the Hard Case Crime series, which apparently aims to recapture the grit (and look) of the pulp-fiction novel. In that respect, Grifter's Game succeeds. It's well-written and hard-edged, with lean prose and a classic setup (grifter, two-timing wife, rich husband). The ending I've seen characterized as disturbing. That's an understatement. To my mind, for better or worse, it more or less overwhelms everything else about the novel. Just be aware: this is pulp fiction, not pop fiction.
One other observation: the book reminded me in a couple of respects of A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. First-person narrator, seemingly logical, with questionable morals.
One final note: I'd give the book four stars for the quality of writing, but that ending ... (shaking head) ... what was he thinking?
One other observation: the book reminded me in a couple of respects of A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. First-person narrator, seemingly logical, with questionable morals.
One final note: I'd give the book four stars for the quality of writing, but that ending ... (shaking head) ... what was he thinking?
December 8, 2016
Lawrence Block has to be one of the most prolific and savvy writers. Having written under numerous pen names during his early career, he has begin reissuing many of them as e-books or under the Hard Case label. Grifter’s Game is one of the latter, having gone through two previous iterations first as “Mona”, then “Sweet Slow Death”. It was originally released in 1961.
The plot is hardly original: con man meets beautiful girl; they fall in love; she is married to gangster; they conspire to kill said gangster, etc. But the treatment is original Block and always enjoyable. The end is surprising. I listened to this as an audiobook masterfully read by Alan Sklar, one of my favorites.
The plot is hardly original: con man meets beautiful girl; they fall in love; she is married to gangster; they conspire to kill said gangster, etc. But the treatment is original Block and always enjoyable. The end is surprising. I listened to this as an audiobook masterfully read by Alan Sklar, one of my favorites.
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